HPE HCI 2.0 test drive just got better

[StorageExperts]

Users agree. The HPE Nimble Storage dHCI test drive shows how easy it can be to manage your hyperconverged 2.0 infrastructure. The demo includes configuration checks which let you find and resolve compute, storage, and networking issues. New test drive features also let you create datastores and storage-based policies, and tour HPE InfoSight integrated with the hyperconverged system.

The new hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) experience – HCI 2.0 – has created waves in the industry. Built for business-critical apps and mixed workloads, disaggregated HCI offers the hyper-simplicity of traditional HCI while ensuring apps are always-on and always fast with sub-millisecond latency. The newest offering in its class, HPE Nimble Storage dHCI, has the horsepower and features to allow you to deploy VMs for previously under-served business-critical workloads, which could easily bring a standard HCI environment to its knees. HCI 2.0 can support those heavier, more complex workloads with resilience, performance, and efficiency.

HPE Nimble dHCI allows you to independently scale your infrastructure, which means you can add new servers with no impact to your existing apps and storage. And it’s all simple and automated, so you don’t have to remember specific steps, perform complex tuning, or delay time to market waiting on other teams for resources. Plus, you gain the power of AIOps with HPE InfoSight, eliminating the firefighting that’s required when you have limited visibility across the infrastructure.

Get hands-on experience with dHCI

Recently, HPE released a test drive demo tool to illustrate how easy it is to plan, deploy and scale HPE Nimble Storage dHCI. This tool gives you a ‘hands-on’ feel for the ease at which you can manage your ever-sprawling virtual machine (VM) environment. Using the tool, you can experience how easy it is to deploy new hyperconverged 2.0 systems or independently scale servers in your existing dHCI system without impacting apps and storage. As one user told me, it’s a VM administrator’s dream come true.

Another interesting test drive feature: configuration checks, which let you find and fix pesky compute, storage or networking issues that could be problematic if left alone. Configuration checks let you see problem resolution in action and resolve issues on the fly right from VMware vCenter, the same way you would resolve them in a real-world dHCI deployment. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. The test drive also includes a one-click upgrade demonstration built into vCenter, showing how you can keep VMs healthy and happy by updating host firmware, hypervisor, and OS, all with a single click of the mouse. Don’t you wish everything you had to manage was that easy?

But wait, there’s more!

Enhanced features of the HPE dHCI test drive

Our engineers have added new capabilities to the test drive tool that let you witness first-hand how dHCI helps take HCI further with added simplicity. Here are a few enhancements: 

VM-centric operations with storage-based policy automation

Policy-based automation lets you create simple, powerful VVols policies such as storage-based data protection, setting IOPS and throughput limits, and data encryption. In the updated demo tool, you can create your own policy rules and apply them easily to a new VM, all within vCenter. 

Build a Datastore

Create a new datastore with attributes such as capacity and QoS capabilities including IOPS and throughput.  VM admins can easily add more datastores that contain new VMs. Again, the creation operations are simple, with a few clicks from vCenter. No need to manage complex volumes, LUNs, or tools.

Tour HPE InfoSight

This is one of my favorite features: The bigger, better test drive now lets you see a demo of HPE InfoSight integrated with HPE Nimble Storage dHCI. You get to see how cross-stack analytics for VMware empowers administrators to not only gain insights into their virtualized environments from datacenters, clusters, ESXi hosts, datastores, and VMs, but also benefit from guided troubleshooting to save time and second-guessing.

 Real hyperconverged simplicity in a ‘fantastic’ demo tool

This dHCI test drive is truly a view into how HPE Nimble Storage dHCI works. The HCI 2.0 test drive provides a single dashboard view within VMware vCenter where you can see performance, inventory, usage, and capacity savings across the landscape. Add to that, you get a feel for the rich automation that makes it extra easy to manage all your VMs in vCenter.

We’re getting great feedback on the demo. Test drivers say it’s a compelling experience because it shows just how simple it can be to perform complex configuration and monitoring work – and it takes a fraction of the time traditional infrastructure requires. One user says the experience is: “Fantastic!  Very intuitive and clearly demonstrates the ease of use. I like how we are able to create VM’s with VVOL policies.”

What are you waiting for? Get ready to grab the wheel! Launch your HPE Nimble Storage dHCI test drive today!

Chuck Wood is a senior Product Marketing Manager for HPE Storage and Hyperconverged Infrastructure. Chuck is responsible for product marketing, leading hyperconverged solutions for software-defined, dynamic datacenters. He blogs about his professional passion – demonstrating excellent customer outcomes based on HPE HCI and dHCI.

Connect with Chuck on LinkedIn. Find him on Twitter @chasypwood .

Storage Experts
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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